1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vacuum dehydrators used to remove entrained contaminants such as air, water, and particulates from mineral and synthetic based oils and mixtures thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional vacuum dehydrators typically employ mesh type screens having 140-400 wires per inch. Such fine screens operate satisfactorily when processing low viscosity highly filtered oils. However, when used in systems with coarse filtration, where the oils have higher viscosities in the ISO 100-680 range, the screens have a tendency to become clogged, thus compromising the operational efficiency of the dehydrators.
There exists a need, therefore, for an improved vacuum dehydrator capable of efficiently processing highly contaminated high viscosity oils.